SpaceX wants to get back to launching Falcon 9 after one of the rockets experienced an upper stage malfunction last week, which forced it to ditch its satellites in a lower than planned orbit. It has requested a public safety determination from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to allow it to return to flight.

A spokesperson for the FAA told The Register that SpaceX made the request on July 15, noting "The FAA is reviewing the request and will be guided by data and safety at every step of the process."

The FAA said in a statement, "When a public safety determination request is received, the agency evaluates safety-critical systems, the nature and consequences of the anomaly, the adequacy of existing flight safety analysis, safety organization performance, and environmental factors.

"If the FAA agrees no public safety issues were involved, the operator may return to flight while the investigation remains open, provided all other license requirements are met."

As far as SpaceX is concerned, there weren't any public safety issues associated with the mishap. The first stage of the Falcon 9 made a nominal landing on a drone ship after the 2235 local time July 11 launch from Vandenburg Space Force Base in California. Things did not go so well for the upper stage which, according to SpaceX, developed a liquid oxygen leak. The first burn of the upper stage's Merlin Vacuum engine went well, but an "anomaly" occurred when the second burn was supposed to take place, leaving the payload of Starlink satellites in a lower-than-planned orbit.

The upper stage survived the "anomaly" and was passivated as usual. However, the malfunction did leave a batch of Starlink satellites in a lower-than-planned orbit. Of the Starlinks, SpaceX said: "The satellites will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and fully demise."

"They do not pose a threat to other satellites in orbit or to public safety."

The FAA's rules for returning to flight following a mishap are clear. There must either be an acceptance from the agency of the final mishap report and corrective actions implemented, or - assuming the mishap didn't involve safety-critical systems or otherwise jeopardize public safety - the FAA could agree to a return to flight operations while the mishap investigation remains open.

While the federal agency had not made a determination regarding SpaceX's request at time of writing, the request itself is an indicator that the company has a good idea of what caused the anomaly and likely has a plan to fix it. The Falcon 9 had also proved to be an extraordinarily reliable workhorse until this mishap.

Otherwise, the FAA would be unable to accept the request for fear of another upper-stage anomaly that would have a less benign outcome.

All of this might bode well for some uncrewed commercial operations, such as slinging more Starlinks into orbit, but launching humans on the Falcon 9 is a different matter altogether. While another upper-stage issue might not present problems for members of the public on the ground, it could be a very bad day for astronauts sitting in a Crew Dragon. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/07/17/spacex_ask_faa_rocket_launch/